Sports anchor Mayanti Langer says she has attracted a new group of fans thanks to her Commonwealth Games coverage for Doordarshan. Even auto-wallas have been congratulating her this week. They were likely among the close to 30 million Indian viewers who watched the opening ceremony that Ms. Langer co-hosted for the state-run broadcaster.

“Every single person seems to be watching the Games and a lot of people, even the security guards, are asking me ‘Aren’t you the one?’” she told India Real Time. “The World Cup coverage went to a different sort of crowd.”

Advertisement

Commentating between the many different events of the Commonwealth Games has been a challenge, says the 25 year old Delhi-ite. Where the World Cup had very specific break times to talk and lots of famous players and teams that Ms. Mayanti already knew well, during the Commonwealth Games she has had to think on her feet for quick comments as the coverage shifted between hockey, weightlifting, boxing, archery, tennis, badminton and other sports without warning.

“So many things are going on simultaneously and suddenly you have to change,” she said. “There is no time to sit and relay the facts and figures. The first couple days, I was out of my wits.”

Ms. Langer’s favorite events so far have been boxing and weightlifting because many of the Indian athletes in these sports are from the military. She grew up around military people as her father is in the Army.

Despite the string of bad stories about Delhi’s readiness running up to the Games, the event has so far gone off without any major glitches, she said. The real tipping point in the nation’s perception was the opening ceremony. “It has been a huge deal for India especially with everything that went wrong.”

She hasn’t been told yet whether she will be invited to host the coverage of the closing ceremony but in the meantime will continue studying the lesser known sports in the Games such as netball and lawn bowls.

“I wasn’t familiar with lawn bowls so that has taken a while to understand,” she said. “I don’t think I would be able to play it though.”

About India Real Time

India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.